Showing results by narrator "Natalie" in All Categories

When a second body turns up in a truck stop parking lot, FBI profiler Violet Darger heads to rural North Carolina to investigate. These crimes are quickly connected to more. And more. And more. The scope of the crisis balloons. Soon, a task force is formed to work a serial murder case spanning a 1,500 mile stretch of the interstate.

Her body seems to hover above the forest floor. Arms and legs torn away from the trunk. A bloody stump mounted upright on a skewer. Not just a corpse. A warning. The most recent body was discovered in the woods just beyond a logging cabin. Dismembered. Put on display. Ghostly pale skin stark against the forest's green.

When multiple murders terrorize a small town college campus, FBI profiler Violet Darger heads to rural Michigan to investigate. As soon as she arrives, a grim history begins to emerge. The crimes have progressed steadily over a period of 18 months. Indecent exposure to stalking. Stalking to rape. Rape to murder. The UNSUB's emphasis on power and control rapidly verges toward full blown sadism. He grows ever bolder, ever more vicious.

A bidding war is expected for the hand of Richard, Prince of Wales. Several billionaires are keen to pay a huge amount of money to ensure that their daughter is the one chosen to marry the prince and become the next queen. But it's the 21st-century, and surely such a thing as selling one's son is no longer an acceptable practice? The queen believes that she has no choice. It doesn't matter that Richard loves someone else. It doesn't matter that the lucky heiress will make an unsuitable member of the royal family, and certainly a far from perfect future queen. Richard must marry her.

Ten years ago when Shane Maguire chose the Marines as his escape from some trouble of his own making, he only regretted one thing - leaving Sinclair Smith behind. Despite his best intentions, she ended up as the one that got away. Now he's back, determined to reclaim everything he gave up, including Sinclair.

The telegram Samantha Sawyer Rodriguez holds is her key to freedom: her late uncle, Ezra, has left her his ranch in Sweetwater Springs, Montana. At last, she and her young son will have a true home, and she can finally pursue her dreams of raising her prized miniature horses and building a sanctuary for wayward orphans. Prosperous rancher Wyatt Thompson has long coveted that river property. It’s bad enough that Ezra’s niece refuses to sell it, but worse by far that she’s stubborn, proud, and beautiful.

Andie Shayne believes in forever...for everyone else. She has an up-and-coming wedding planning business, and her own failed engagement, to prove it. Now all Andie wants is to save the date for Seaglass Celebrations becoming a premier destination wedding resort. And making sure the wedding of the summer goes off without a hitch will get her there - despite the arrival of one unexpected guest. The sexy-as-sin best man...who’s also the ex who broke Andie’s heart.

Join Gu Xuilan as she journeys to her home in the deathblighted desert now ironically named the Golden Fields to face family, her own doubts, and the relentless rise of the dead. Join Bai Meizhen in the small and personal story of her discovery of love, blooming at the Argen Peak Sect, only hinted at in the course of Ling Qi's story. Join many characters from all across the world of Destiny Cycle, in small stories both grand and personal, here in the Journey to the East and other Tales of Destiny.

What does it take to have a long writing life? Drawing on her years of writing, teaching, and practicing Zen, Natalie Goldberg shares the experiences that have opened her to new ways of being alive - experiences that point the way forward in our lives and our writing. The "great spring" of this book title refers to the great rush of energy that arrives when you think no life will ever come again - the early yellow flowering forsythia, for example.

Think about this: How would you address a group of two or more people? Would you say: "you", "you all", "yous", "you lot", "y'all", "you guys", "you'uns", "yinz", or something else? Would that change depending on whom you were talking to or where you were? Your answers can provide revealing insights into who you are, where you grew up or live now, and your social, economic, and educational background. Welcome to the enthralling world of linguistics.

Clover: The man may be my brother's new second in command, but to me, Joshua's just the bossy pain in the ass who's way too good at getting under my skin. To be fair, I suppose my less-than-sunny disposition when he's around can take some of the credit for provoking him. I can't help it. He's the pack's alpha cat—a hulking, hot mountain lion shifter, and thus the bane of my existence on principle. Cats and I, we don't mix.

In the wake of destruction left behind by the Virus, it took Dani and Zoe months to find each other. But their reunion was short-lived. Dani has been taken, and though little distance separates them, they might as well be worlds apart. From the moment she hears Dani's scream, Zoe's only goal is to save her best friend. She and her companions scramble to come up with a rescue plan, but when a ghost from Jake's past reappears, lines are blurred, decisions become harder, and secrets are revealed...and some secrets are best left buried.

Dispelling the myth that everyone else is having "perfect sex", or even that there is such a thing, this book explores taboos, debunks myths, and brings together the latest research to a topic that has preoccupied the vast majority for millennia. Reframing assumptions about sex, and moving away from a shame-based approach to a pleasure-focused, biopsychosocial one, Kate Moyle, a certified psycho-sexologist and relationship therapist, aims to encourage curiosity and pleasure.

The Fogg River Seminary, a girls’ school in a small Illinois town, is supposed to be just another stop on Maryse and Vasyl’s endless travels. They’ve made lucrative use of Maryse’s “foreign” looks in their melodramatic séance act—and an act is all it is. Then, during their performance, a blizzard sweeps in and cuts them off from town completely. In the freezing halls, there’s a voice speaking the secrets of the dead, and Maryse has no choice but to listen…because this time, the voice is real.

Raised in a privileged community of wealthy survivalists on an idyllic, self-sustaining Oregon ranch, Marlo has always been insulated. The outside world, which the ranchers call “the Disaster”, is a casualty of ravaging climate change, a troubled landscape on the brink of catastrophe. For as long as Marlo can remember, the unknown that lies beyond the borders of her utopia has been a curious obsession. But just as she plans her escape into the chaos of the real world, a charismatic new resident gives her a compelling reason to stay.

The world is in motion, and Ling Qi can hardly count the number of loose ends and new business she has to tie up. Her great task lies before her, a great summit with the people of the south to determine what the future will be. Still, the Argent Peak Sect stirs to war with both the tribes of the sky and the creatures of the deep earth. But first comes the great end-of-year tournament. She is not a participant this time but an observer, and all the more enmeshed in politics that swirl around it.

Humanity survived. Barely, and thanks to networks of gigantic tower systems created to surround small villages with a protective barrier of lethal energy. It kept everything out...and everyone in. Sixteen years have passed, and a girl born the night the world fell apart learns that she has a strange talent. The towers can speak, and she is the only one who can hear them.

Hua Minglan didn't fear death. At least not hers. What scared her was watching the people she loved suffer for nothing more than the history in their blood. Because as descendants fo the last Dragon Lords of Piao, the Minglans had dragon blood. The capital city wasn't a welcome place for anyone suspected fo harboring the ancient power inside them. No dragon had been seen in Piao in a hundred years, yet the legends called their blood royal. It was said those with dragon blood were fit to sit on the emperor's gilded throne.

Construction tip #1: Never anger a hot-tempered woman who knows how to wield a sledgehammer. And right now, Jill Sadler is spitting mad. Her company is competing on the wildly popular show Texas Dream Home, and she intends to give it her all. The opposition: We Nail It Contractors, helmed by the man who once married her...and walked out twenty-four hours later. Jill can't let Cal Reynolds take this round. Not when she has her foster sisters and years of righteous resentment spurring her on.

College sweethearts London Uphill and Jared Kraft were inseparable. He was a rising baseball star with a promising future, and she seemed destined to become "Mrs. Kraft". Then a tragic night and a series of devastating mistakes caused Jared to walk away from his life, leaving London without any explanation and tearing the couple apart.